[US Trending] A Repeat of the “China Eastern Airlines Crash” | A “Xi Jinping Restaurant” in South Korea | Starship Succeeds, but CCTV’s “Failure” Still Trends | “Landlord-Cracking 2.0”? Special Task Forces to Hunt Down Tax Owed by the Rich | National Day Holiday: Overtime, Make-up Classes, 94 Test Papers | Work One Hour and You Can’t Afford a 9 Yuan Coffee
This episode focuses on the thrilling dive incident of a flydubai flight and compares it with the delayed investigation of the Eastern Airlines crash; discusses the controversy over panda naming, the irony of Chinese officials using Japanese thermos cups, and a Toshiba advertisement; reports on mandatory overtime and exaggerated homework imposed by schools and businesses in many places during the National Day holiday; reviews the incident where a Chinese man in South Korea smashed a Chinese restaurant with the same name; analyzes the successful launch of the SpaceX Starship and the reversal in CCTV's reporting; focuses on the arrest of rock fans and violent security enforcement at a Guangzhou music festival; and reports in depth on the special tax collection task force and escalated exit restrictions targeting the overseas assets and cross-border capital of the wealthy by Chinese tax authorities amid local fiscal crises.
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US Hot Search lets you hear the voice outside the Great Firewall. Hello everyone, audience and friends, I am Qixiaotian for today's US Hot Search. First, let's look at a breaking news story. On local time September 30, flydubai flight FZ1073 flew from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Israel. There were about 160 to 180 passengers on board, almost all of them Israelis. About two and a half hours after takeoff, the plane reached an altitude of 33,000 feet, and then suddenly plummeted. According to Flightradar24 data, the aircraft descended nearly 14,000 feet in less than thirty seconds. A passenger recorded a video inside the cabin during the plane's violent descent, and screams for help were heard near the cockpit. At this critical moment, a passenger and a crew member forced their way into the cockpit, discovering that the co-pilot had attacked the captain and operated the aircraft dangerously. The passenger and crew subdued the co-pilot, and other crew members took over the plane, finally pulling it out of the dive. Afterwards, people on board released videos from inside the cockpit, saying that after the pilot was subdued and normal flight resumed, passengers in the cabin cheered and celebrated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently disclosed that the Omani co-pilot on the plane had attempted to sabotage the aircraft's control system and crash the plane into Tel Aviv. The flight subsequently made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. Photos after landing showed that the rudder on the tail of the plane was damaged. Local authorities have taken control of the facility, the co-pilot and the two pilots were sent to the hospital, and all passengers eventually disembarked safely. Passengers and media recorded the scene when the plane landed. After the plane landed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally met with the heroes who stopped the terrorist attack. The Israeli side preliminarily classified this incident as a terrorist attack targeting Israeli passengers.
This incident is also reminiscent of the 2002 China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 nose-dive crash, where all 132 people on board perished. In 2006, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board released the black box data of the crashed plane, showing no mechanical safety issues; the control system on the copilot's side showed an operation to push the nose down, pointing all technical evidence toward human action in the cockpit. However, 4 years have passed, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China has still not released a final investigation report, nor has it made the most crucial cockpit voice recordings public. Just like the pilots, attempting to steer an airplane into the ground—passengers of Flydubai rushed into the cockpit and saved more than 100 lives, while the 132 victims of China Eastern could not even get a complete answer.
Next, let's look at the mobile phone China segment. General Secretary sent two pandas, Pingping and Fuzhuang, to the United States, but netizens discovered that the names of the two pandas surprisingly sounded like a pun. Eve, a former Chinese state security agent currently living in Australia, posted on Twitter pointing out that the names of these pandas were too strange; didn't the person who named them know the old Chinese saying that misfortune never comes singly, and connected together didn't it mean blessings do not come twice, misfortunes never come singly? Pingping represents the General Secretary, could this be considered a curse? What do you say, audience friends? How else can these two names be interpreted, please leave a message in the comment section. The General Secretary used a Japanese brand thermos cup at the White House banquet, causing mockery among netizens who circumvent the Great Firewall. However, if everyone observes carefully, they will find that engineering personnel and facilities generally use imports. Japan's Toshiba's latest advertisement slapped the CCP in the face, stating that Toshiba central air conditioning is the designated air conditioning for the national treasure-level collections in the Forbidden City. All the rare clocks and watches in the Forbidden City use central air conditioning produced by Toshiba's original Japanese factory. I wonder how I feel? Having the fortune to see this advertisement from my little pink community, what would the taste in my heart be? Surely they can't smash the Forbidden City as well.
National Day long holiday is about to start, however, the grassroots leeks across the country are not qualified to enjoy this price. On September 28, a netizen posted an exposure showing that the China Unicom Liaocheng Branch required employees to work mandatory overtime for the first three days during the National Day holiday and issued marketing targets. If tasks were not completed in the first three days, overtime would continue on the fourth day, and those who failed to meet the standards received no overtime pay or compensatory leave. On September 26, a netizen in Guangdong posted on Xiaohongshu stating that as a senior high school senior, they only got two days off for the Mid-Autumn Festival and only two days of vacation arranged for National Day, yet they still had to attend make-up classes. The post wrote that high school seniors are not Chinese. An English teacher who claimed to be from a university in Hunan said in the comment section that students at their school only had one day off for the Mid-Autumn Festival and still had to attend classes on weekends. Yantai Sino-English School in Shandong was exposed for assigning high school students ten days of holiday homework for the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, issuing ninety-four test papers in one go. It is said that just handing out the test papers took an hour. Netizens sighed that this is just the beginning, and there are still 996, flexible employment, and mid-life layoffs waiting ahead. After the video sparked heated discussions online, the school did not change the ninety-four test papers; instead, the publisher of the video received a notice from the school two days later demanding the video be deleted. On September 24, the Communist Youth League Central Committee released a promotional video in Bishan showing five-star red flags hanging in many places ahead of the National Day. However, after the video was broadcast, the bullet screen was flooded with scrolling messages, and netizens sighed that it probably won't be long before the word decoration within the wall becomes a sensitive word. Indeed, in a society lacking guarantees for workers' rights, workers can be exploited without bottom lines, and the only way out above is through the democratic path. Today, more and more grassroots people in China have realized this. On September 25, a Douyin vlogger released a video suggesting that the Two Sessions open a national online suggestion channel to collect the twenty issues with the highest public voice for open discussion, voting, and legislation. This video received 0.7 million likes, but the page displayed only four comments: strongly suggesting that the Two Sessions open a national online suggestion channel to collect the twenty issues with the highest public voice for open discussion, voting, and legislation, truly letting the people be the masters of the country. Does everyone support this? Netizens said that in recent years, such people and such videos have become more and more frequent, and control has become increasingly strict. I don't know what will happen in the next few years. What is the result of combining a huge dictatorial regime with a glass heart?
According to South Korean media reports, a Chinese restaurant in South Korea named after CJ was broken into by four Chinese male suspects in the early morning of September 24, and during the vandalism, they sprayed instruments suspected of containing pesticides. Police believe that the suspects previously entered the country in batches with tourist visas, stayed together in advance, prepared to act after the restaurant's Mid-Autumn consecutive holiday at noon, and then immediately returned to their residence, packed their bags, and flew to Shanghai to leave the country. Netizens complained that because a store name was the same as the Sacred Emperor, they went all the way to act as Chinese state security and smash a store—they are truly giant babies.
On September 18, SpaceX successfully launched its 14th flight test, entering Earth's orbit for the first time. During the mission, 26 Starlink satellites were deployed. However, this created a dramatic reversal in China. During the ascent, one Raptor engine shut down prematurely, yet the vehicle still successfully reached orbit. To ensure safety, the mission duration was shortened from the originally planned ten hours to about three hours. Nevertheless, MagicLeap could not wait to loudly declare that SpaceX's first attempt to reach orbit had failed, and the news quickly trended on social media. Embarrassingly, after SpaceX successfully reached orbit, related news also appeared on the Weibo trending list, resulting in both headlines about the successful orbit and the failed orbit existing on the list simultaneously. A netizen asked in the comment section of a CCTV report why they claimed it was a failure, only to have their comment deleted and their account blocked by CCTV. Netizens joked, "As expected of Musk, he has decisively 'CCTV-ed' them." On September 15, a netizen in Guangdong posted a video showing factory workers rushing to assembly lines during the Mid-Autumn Festival for high-intensity work. On the high-speed assembly lines, workers were rapidly processing products like phone cases. A netizen lamented, "My operations are as fierce as a tiger, but my daily wage is only 150." On September 19, a Bilibili influencer posted a video titled "I don't understand what is wrong with this world," stating that when buying a drink at Luckin Coffee, they discovered that based on the wages and hours mentioned by the clerk, an hour's work income could not even afford a 9-yuan drink in the shop. They asked, "In this world, besides the CCP and its cronies, what other countries have workers who cannot afford a cup of coffee with an hour's wages?"
On September 28, the Peaceful China Construction Work Conference was held in Beijing, where instructions from General Secretary Xi were conveyed. The General Secretary stated that since the 18th National Congress of the CCP, the construction of a peaceful China has achieved remarkable results, and China has become one of the safest countries in the world. General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee, President of the State, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping recently gave important instructions on building a higher level of peaceful China, pointing out that since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the construction of a peaceful China has achieved significant results, the good situation of people living and working in peace and contentment and social stability and order has been further consolidated, and our country has become one of the safest countries in the world. So, what does the CCP's "safety" look like? It looks like the Strawberry Music Festival in Guangzhou, Guangdong today, where three music fans were labeled as "stubborn elements" by the police simply for organizing and participating in a "mosh pit," a common activity at rock concerts, and were taken away on the spot. The public security organ warned that during the stage performance, some audience members ignored repeated warnings from on-site security personnel and organized and participated in circling, which violated the Public Security Administration Punishments Law of the People's Republic of China and seriously disrupted the order of the concert. The police have used drone aerial photography for evidence, and three "stubborn elements" have been taken away by the police for investigation. The police reserve the right to pursue legal responsibility. "Please stop your illegal behavior immediately, otherwise the legal consequences arising therefrom will be borne by the illegal actors." On September 18, a netizen filmed a police officer grabbing an item from an elderly person's hand and threatening the elderly person fiercely, until the elderly person had no choice but to give it to the police. A netizen posted a video of what appeared to be villagers in a village confronting the police, with two police officers holding guns; one of the officers took the bullet out of the gun to show the villagers that the gun was loaded. "If you don't say anything to me..." they said excitedly. Hearing this made me pause, but I am not... it is not me. Furthermore, let us analyze the General Secretary's statement that "the situation of social stability and order has been further consolidated." Since the General Secretary took office, violent social phenomena in China have increased significantly, skyrocketing from 3 to 6 cases per year between 2013 and 2017 to at least 20 to 30 cases per year between 2024 and 2026. However, the CCP's information security means that people cannot even truly discuss why these phenomena have become so common. A netizen responded to the General Secretary's claim that China is one of the safest countries in the world, saying that the dialogue was meant for the General Secretary himself to hear. For the General Secretary, having special food supplies is the safest, having high-ranking cadre wards and organ supplies for health is the safest, having surveillance cameras for public security is the safest, and having the terminal and the Central Guard Bureau in hand, being able to arrest any high-ranking official he wants, is the safest power. The Chinese people are lucky; they wouldn't rebel even during a great famine, so the regime is the safest.
Next, we enter the foreign media
Looking at China segment: Chinese people are lucky.
If even the Great Famine couldn't trigger a rebellion, the regime is at its safest. In the early days of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s rule, from land reform to the subsequent joint state-private ownership, wealthy Chinese families back then experienced home raids and property confiscation. Decades have passed, and a new batch of billionaires has emerged in China. However, with the current economic downturn and local government finances stretched thin, the CCP has once again set its sights on the pockets of the wealthy, reviving the practice of 'fighting local tyrants and dividing their land.' According to official Chinese data, last year the combined consumption expenditures of China's central and local governments exceeded fiscal revenues by a full $19 trillion. In the past, the local governments' cash cow was land sales, but with the downturn in the real estate market, this money tree can no longer shake out cash. Governments at all levels, desperate for new sources of revenue, have once again turned their attention back to the wealthy. Bloomberg reported on this, stating that in January of this year, Wu Jinglian, head of the State Taxation Administration of China, announced the entry into a new taxation era. Subsequently, national tax authorities began a large-scale investigation into the tax issues of the wealthy and enterprises. China even established specialized tax teams targeting the super-rich, with some groups focusing specifically on billionaires, and one of their key targets being the more than $17 trillion in assets held by Chinese residents in Hong Kong alone. Now, many wealthy individuals have received notices demanding the payment of taxes related to overseas trusts by late October, or face additional fees. Family members of Haidilao co-founder Shu Ting suddenly received a tax bill, after which she sold about $350 million worth of Haidilao shares through her family trust. Some are selling stocks, others are using overseas assets as collateral for loans, and some are even beginning to consider acquiring foreign passports out of concern that China might impose an exit tax in the future on those who emigrate overseas. Of course, the wealthy are not just sitting around waiting to be fleeced; the controlling shareholder of a company in Guangzhou initially received a tax bill of 100 million RMB, and he directly threatened to move the company to Shanghai. As a result, after a round of negotiations, the tax bill was slashed from 100 million RMB down to 5 million RMB. It is not just billionaires being pursued for taxes; Zhao, a 46-year-old textile business owner from Guangdong, suddenly received a call from the tax department in August this year. For years, he had been trading foreign stocks through overseas brokerages. Theoretically, these gains should have been taxed in China, but for many years in the past, almost no one took it seriously. Now, the tax department suddenly told him that he owed 900 million RMB—correction: 9 million RMB. Mr. Zhao felt this figure was ridiculously high and had to hire a lawyer to dig through closed securities accounts to recalculate the transaction records one by one. In an interview, Mr. Zhao helplessly said that his biggest hope now is that they calculated it wrong. Why are they starting to seriously settle accounts precisely now? Because local governments are truly strapped for cash. After the real estate crash, local governments' land sales revenue, which used to exceed $11 trillion annually, is now expected to drop to less than one-third. Official data shows that last year, the expenditures of China's central and local governments exceeded revenues by...
Approximately $19 trillion. Harry Gao, a law professor at the National University of Singapore, says the government is now doing everything possible to find money, targeting both "tigers and flies." Municipal and provincial tax departments across China have recently issued tax payment demands to many people via letters and phone calls. Some, like Mr. Zhao, were given a specific figure directly by the tax bureau, but many others received more vague notices, with the tax bureau even asking them to estimate how much tax they should pay themselves. According to insiders, once this figure is reported, it becomes the starting point for the tax authorities to negotiate the final tax amount with you. The most ironic part is that a deputy party secretary in a city in Henan has not received his salary for a full year. When asked if the local government finally has money to pay civil servants now that they are pursuing the overseas assets of the wealthy, his answer was that the government's debt is so massive that this money will likely not reach our salaries. So, how much money could this round potentially extract from China's wealthy? Regarding only the assets Chinese tycoons have placed in Hong Kong, Barclays analysts say the tax bill could reach as high as $100 billion, while Chinese tax lawyers believe that is an exaggeration, but estimate the final collection could still be between $15 billion and $25 billion. Some analyses even suggest that China may introduce an inheritance tax in the future. Furthermore, what makes Chinese tycoons nervous is not just how much tax they have to pay; once a tycoon voluntarily declares overseas assets, it is equivalent to handing over their overseas trusts, stocks, and assets for the tax authorities to inspect. The tax authorities are then very likely to continue questioning: with so much money, how exactly did you get it abroad in the first place? History is cyclical; decades ago, the CCP was raiding homes, and now it is tax bills. But for some Chinese tycoons who suddenly receive tax bills of millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of yuan, they must all be pondering the same question: how much of their own money truly belongs to them? Is it because of the acquisitions that Beijing has tightened exit restrictions for key personnel in the private and tech sectors? Now, control is further escalating. Bloomberg recently reported that not only do some security personnel and chip executives need approval to leave the country, but their spouses, children, and other immediate family members may also need prior approval from Beijing, even for short-term trips abroad. Insiders say that relevant personnel have already received notices, and the list may continue to expand in the future. It seems that talent has become a strategic asset, and their family members have become supporting assets.
Next, let's look at a few short videos. Domestic cars are not good at anything, but they are quite skilled at performing the idiom "a horse stumbling." Netizens say Huawei has never relied on technology, but on legal weapons and IQ taxes. This is what you call an IQ tax catching up with everything. An absurd monk begging for money to grow vegetables; the monks of Chinese socialism directly beg for RMB. A blogger filmed a monk skillfully counting money. Netizens joked that there are too many fools among the Emei tycoons, and they don't play at all. At the end of the program, we enter the netizen interaction segment. Regarding the comment on the dancing PLA civilian officers, one said: These dancing aunties might think they are dancers, but they remind me of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution who destroyed traditional humanity and culture. Shameful, saying that organized militarized actions, combat-oriented lives, and collective living—the social foundation of China was already fixed during the Great Leap Forward, and later there were only partial changes, with no way to completely renovate it. Regarding the comment on Xi and Peng Liyuan using Japanese thermos cups, it said: Domestic brands are also things that require others to use foreign goods to ensure the health and safety of the imperial relatives.